Transactions of the korea branch of the royal asiatic society vol. XXXV 1959 Reprinted 1969 Korea Branch royal asiatic society

1) Umehara Sueji and Fujita Ryosaku, Chosen Kobunka Sokan, Nara and Kyoto, 1948,Vol II, “Lolang”, p. 15. The illustrations and their explanations both in this volume and in Vol. III, 1958, also on Lolang, exemplify the contrast in number and quality between the objects discovered in the Lolang capital area and those discovered elsewhere in the peninsula. [page 27]

2) The material for this brief survey comes generally from Hyangt’o Seoul, published by the Seoul City Compilation Committee, Kim Yŏng-sang, Editor, Seoul, 1957, Vol. 1, pp. 11 and following. Thanks are also due Mr. Kim for generously answering many questions.

3) For interpretation, here, I am grateful to Professor Yi Pyeng Do, Seoul National University.

4) Keijo-Fu-shi (History of Seoul City), City Government of Seoul, 1934, Vol 1. p. 146. The chŏk is a modern equivalent of the ancient measurement used.

5) Kim Wŏn-yong, “Sokki Sidae ui Seoul”, in Hyangt’o Seoul, pp. 34~49.

6) Seoul Saryŏ Ch’ongsŏ Tongguk Yŏji Pigo, Seoul City Compilation Committee Publication No. 1, Seoul, 1955, p. 72; a famous Yi dynasty geographical work, here republished, describing Seoul, devotes a paragraph to Hŭngch’ŏn-sa and its predecessor temple from which all following information on the temple comes.

7) Ibid.

9) We understand that there were plans to remove this bridge and reconstruct it in the grounds of the Ch’angdŏk Palace but that these plans are still uncertain.

10) Seoul Saryo Ch’ongso p. 72.

11) Ibid.

12) For this and the following information, I am indebted to the late Dr. Hugh Cynn (Shin Hŭng-wu), who grew up in this region in this period.

13) E.g. Keijo Fu-shi, Vol. II, p.310.

14) Rosetta Sherwood Hall (ed.) The Life of Rev. William JamesHall, M.D., New York, 1897, pp. 228~30, who also gives a picture of “Ewa Hak Tang” and notes, appreciatively, that “barren sands have become a grassy lawn and the stony lane and foul gutters have been hidden away under green terraces.”

15) Mr. Shin Bong-jo, Principal, Ewha High School, states that it is certain that Queen Min bestowed the name on the school, but whether it was from the name of the villa or from the spotless character attributed to the pear blossom and, by analogy, to the character of girls in many Chinese poems, is uncertain. Perhaps it was a little of both.

16) Fred Harvey Harrington, God, Mammon and the Japanese, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1944, pp. 110~111 gives a fuller version, with a different motive: “In 1903 His Majesty’s eye fell on the Underwood establishment. The timid monarch was in search of a safe palace site; he could not have failed to note that the land...was surrounded on three sides by the protected American legation. Underwood...rejected the Emperor’s offer. Thereupon His Majesty called on Allen and asked the minister to order Underwood to sell. Allen refused, on the ground that he had no power to coerce Americans...Having thus defended principle...the diplomat managed to persuade his missionary friend to yield.” However, having purchased the property, the king delayed moving while Dr. Underwood looked for new quarters. This delay was brought abruptly to an end by the great Tŏksu palace fire early in 1904.

17) L. George Paik, The History of Protestant Missions in Korea 1832~1910, [page 28] Pyeng Yang, 1929, pp. 89~90, gives insight into both the general and his real estate dealings: “The property which Allen acquired for his mission was originally occupied by a man who was murdered during the mutiny of 1882. This had been left unoccupied, for it was believed to be haunted.” (cited from The Foreign Missionary, Vol 42, No. 8, January, 1886, p. 324.) (Although not noted, it is highly probable that the house was a tempting bargain because of its uncomfortable spiritual situation; later, after the suicide of Min Yŏng Whan following the signing of the Protectorate Treaty of 1905, the French Legation was tempted by a similar lowness of price to buy Min’s villa at the West Gate, where the present French Embassy is still located.) To continue with the citation: “When Maclay visited Seoul in June, 1884, he and his wife occupied the house and expressed to the American Minister the desire to purchase it for his mission...Dr. Allen made the following entry in his diary in regard to this purchase, recording the Minister’s conversation with him: “I will frankly tell you the fact in this case. Last summer an old man, Dr. Maclay of Japan, thrust himself upon us and so pestered me that I finally agreed to get this property for him to start a mission upon.”

18) Harrington p. 11.

19) For almost all of the following paragraph, I am indebted to Mr. Henry William Davidson, father of Mrs. Horace Underwood, and long-time resident of the Chŏngdong area during much of this period. He supervised the construction of the present National Museum building, then the Granite Palace of the Yi Emperors in the Tŏksu Palace grounds.

20) Original document in possession of the American Embassy, Seoul.

21) A further informal paper attached to the above.

22) For information in this paragraph, I am again indebted to Dr. Hugh Cynn.

23) Harrington op. cit. pp. 320~21.

24) Keijo Fu-shi Vol. II, pp. 21~22.

25) Herbert Croly Willard Straight, The MacMillan Co. N.Y. 1925, p. 182 here quotes Straight’s diary for November 18, 1905.

26) In obtaining this information, I have consulted members of the Min family and am indebted to Mr. Yŏ Un-hong for further consultations. Further records which may throw more light on Min Yŏng-gyo are said to be in process of collection and editing by the Min family office.

27) Deeds of sale in possession of the Embassy.

28) The ryang in question seems to have been the Chinese liang, then used widely in Korea. Native Korean ryang was not issued until 1898 and 1899 (H. W. Davidson). The later ryang was worth about 10 cents. Perhaps the price paid by Foote would have been closer to S1,000 than S2,000 if it was, as Harrington put it (note 16 above) “to pay the general handsomely” when he sold this plus the 3,500 ryang property for $4,400 in 1887.

29) Deed of sale in possession of the Embassy.

30) Ibid.

31) Ibid.

32) Harrington p. 258 even says of the residence; “Uncomfortable and unpretentious, it inevitably suggested to the Koreans that the United States could with impunity be ignored.” The residence has, it might be noted, been extensively enlarged and repaired since. 
[page 29]

The names of Seoul or settlements near its site:

Hapuk Uirye-sŏng 河北慰禮城

Hanyang 漢 陽

Yangju 楊 州

Namkyong 南 京

Hanyangbu 漢 陽 府

Hansong 漢 城

Kyongsong 京 城

Seoul 서 울

Census-taking under the Yi Dynasty

By Lee Kwang-rin (李光麟) Yonsei University
[page 33]

PREFACE
In a self-sufficient agricultural economy, such as existed in Korea during the Yi Dynasty, a complete census is essential to the government in order to tap the most important sources of revenue. The government during the Yi Dynasty, therefore, placed special emphasis on taking censuses. Every three years the government made tabulations of the population and kept the records in a census office. In most cases the military draft and labor mobilization were based upon the census.

However, most commoners, being burdened with large taxes and corvées, were scarcely able to feed their families. When official pressure became too great, they actually dared to evade taxes and corvees by taking refuge with overlords. As a result, the census was not taken in good order, so that, even though a census were taken, only half or less of the actual population was included.

In order to solve this problem the government was forced to enact a number of new regulations. The Hop’ae System(號牌法, Identity Tag System)and the Ogat’ong System (五家統法, Five Households System) were devised in order to reinforce the effectiveness of the census taking.

In this paper I shall briefly examine the fundamental system of census taking and then the subsidiary systems, the Hop’ae System and the Ogat’ong System.
[page34]